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> So many unnecessary conflicts/dramas can be avoided by simple and honest communication. It's really not that simple in my opinion. The flow of information is

> So many unnecessary conflicts/dramas can be avoided by simple and honest communication. It's really not that simple in my opinion. The flow of information is "upper management wants this a certain way/at a certain time, I'm just the enforcer, if you don't work to accommodate/comply at a high priority, it's a problem" more often than not.

majormajor 4y ago
There are worlds of problems in teams and organizations that have nothing to do with what upper management wants, especially as a company grows. Disputes between two developers on a team, disputes between two teams, disputes between a developer and a team, a bunch of teams dogpiling on another team, etc... The above ones aren't always the same as the "what do you think of me" example for "angsting over asking" but are generally still problems of communication - the other team isn't doing what you would want them to do because they don't know what makes things easier/harder for you, vice versa, etc. Angsting instead of giving negative feedback is an extremely common one too, and leads to people being pissed off and blindsided at performance review time.
- MuffinFlavored 4y ago
  > Disputes between two developers on a team, The way I've seen it: you should aim to be the developer avoiding disputes at all cost. If you are responsible for a dispute whatsoever, you're the problem child and will be dealt with (by management) > disputes between two teams, At my last job, managers were proxies to teams. Engineers were basically encouraged not to talk to other engineers because it would "distract them from whatever they were working on" and any ask you had for them needed to get approved by their manager/other management anyway. > disputes between a developer and a team, Again, teams didn't talk to each other. You tell your manager, they go talk to that team's manager. And that team's manager's main job is to say "no, we have no capacity for that", shielding the team at all costs, unless upper management says something/asks something. All initiatives had to come from above, not below. > a bunch of teams dogpiling on another team, etc... You get the idea. Team manager -> team manager
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
The problem I described was the opposite, actually: We often couldn’t tell what upper management wanted or was upset about because the manager was too “nice” to communicate it. We had multiple situations where something we built was unsatisfying to upper management for some reason, but couldn’t address it because the manager was avoiding negative communication or anything resembling confrontation. Getting it out in the open so we could at least do something about it would have been better.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  Yeah I like to call these types of management "smile f**ers". My last org was like this. All smiles, everything great, everyones doing a great job. Except that behind the scenes senior management was very unhappy about certain things, and our entire org got its clock cleaned over the following 18 months. Senior managers moved aside, others downgraded to IC roles, pushed a few people out, new leads hired from outside, etc etc.
  - explorer83 4y ago
    In some worlds there are experienced managers that know processes and systems inside and out. they clearly stand out as leaders. But in areas where there is a lot of ambiguity, change and innovation, sometimes NOBODY knows whether something is a good idea or not. What else are you supposed to do other than say "it's sounds reasonable let's go for it". Only later to get the results back and find out it was a flop. Now changes have to be made to make it look like effort is being made to reduce flops. Could it also be something like that?
KyeRussell 4y ago
If these are the only sorts of problems you identify in your workplace, you are certainly running the risk of being on the wrong side of the other ones.

majormajor 4y ago

There are worlds of problems in teams and organizations that have nothing to do with what upper management wants, especially as a company grows. Disputes between two developers on a team, disputes between two teams, disputes between a developer and a team, a bunch of teams dogpiling on another team, etc... The above ones aren't always the same as the "what do you think of me" example for "angsting over asking" but are generally still problems of communication - the other team isn't doing what you would want them to do because they don't know what makes things easier/harder for you, vice versa, etc. Angsting instead of giving negative feedback is an extremely common one too, and leads to people being pissed off and blindsided at performance review time.

MuffinFlavored 4y ago
> Disputes between two developers on a team, The way I've seen it: you should aim to be the developer avoiding disputes at all cost. If you are responsible for a dispute whatsoever, you're the problem child and will be dealt with (by management) > disputes between two teams, At my last job, managers were proxies to teams. Engineers were basically encouraged not to talk to other engineers because it would "distract them from whatever they were working on" and any ask you had for them needed to get approved by their manager/other management anyway. > disputes between a developer and a team, Again, teams didn't talk to each other. You tell your manager, they go talk to that team's manager. And that team's manager's main job is to say "no, we have no capacity for that", shielding the team at all costs, unless upper management says something/asks something. All initiatives had to come from above, not below. > a bunch of teams dogpiling on another team, etc... You get the idea. Team manager -> team manager

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

The problem I described was the opposite, actually: We often couldn’t tell what upper management wanted or was upset about because the manager was too “nice” to communicate it. We had multiple situations where something we built was unsatisfying to upper management for some reason, but couldn’t address it because the manager was avoiding negative communication or anything resembling confrontation. Getting it out in the open so we could at least do something about it would have been better.

steveBK123 4y ago
Yeah I like to call these types of management "smile f**ers". My last org was like this. All smiles, everything great, everyones doing a great job. Except that behind the scenes senior management was very unhappy about certain things, and our entire org got its clock cleaned over the following 18 months. Senior managers moved aside, others downgraded to IC roles, pushed a few people out, new leads hired from outside, etc etc.
- explorer83 4y ago
  In some worlds there are experienced managers that know processes and systems inside and out. they clearly stand out as leaders. But in areas where there is a lot of ambiguity, change and innovation, sometimes NOBODY knows whether something is a good idea or not. What else are you supposed to do other than say "it's sounds reasonable let's go for it". Only later to get the results back and find out it was a flop. Now changes have to be made to make it look like effort is being made to reduce flops. Could it also be something like that?

KyeRussell 4y ago

If these are the only sorts of problems you identify in your workplace, you are certainly running the risk of being on the wrong side of the other ones.